My Italy - Chapter 677 Battle of Nice (4)

The Colin Bridge is a steel-structured highway arch bridge from Sospele to Les Carrennes.

The bridge is 83 meters long and 27 meters high. It spans a long and narrow valley and is the key point connecting the two places. If this place is occupied by the Italian army, the French troops in the Bro Pass will be doomed. Therefore, the French army attaches great importance to this place. In addition to deploying a battalion of troops, a militia battalion is also deployed here.

For a point in the rear, this is already a considerable amount of attention.

However, although heavy troops were deployed here, they still did not escape the sharp eyes of Lieutenant General Caviglia, who keenly saw the benefits of seizing this place. Not only could it completely annihilate the two French divisions at the Col de Breau, it would also reduce the pressure on him to threaten Nice from the flanks and occupy Levan.

After all, two infantry divisions are not a small number for the French Sixth Army. If they want to supplement the combat effectiveness of at least one division in a short period of time, where can the Sixth Army draw it from?

If the reserve team is called, what should he do if there are other situations where he doesn’t have enough cards?

It was precisely in consideration of the French army’s problems at the Burro Pass that Lieutenant General Caviglia decided to launch a surprise force to capture the bridge in one fell swoop. Even if it cannot be taken, at least the bridge needs to be blown up. The goal that Lieutenant General Caviglia has been obsessed with has been halfway accomplished.

“Fire to prevent the enemy from crossing the bridge!”

“I’m asking how long it will take for reinforcements to arrive.”

“Also report our current situation upwards.”

When he said this again, Lieutenant Colonel Kaman, who was the commander of Colin Bridge, was filled with regret. I hate that I only focused on the front, causing the rear to be attacked.

To put it bluntly, Lieutenant Colonel Kaman should not actually bear the responsibility. Putting his own battalion in the more dangerous east of Qiao, and placing the militia battalion in the safer west of Qiao, there was no problem in terms of military deployment. However, Lieutenant General Caviglia made a surprise move. He organized thirty large and medium-sized airships, and took advantage of the cover of night to transport an elite reinforced battalion behind the Colin Bridge. For this reason, he even lost one airship.

Needless to say, the result was that the other party launched a surprise attack on the unwary militia camp at dawn. Under the enemy’s superiority and the terrifyingly intensive firepower, the militia battalion was defeated and defeated. Even a reinforced company he sent to support was beaten back.

The officer who heard back said that the enemy had an automatic weapon that could be fired hand-held. After rushing into their position, they fired at it and defeated them.

After listening to the report of the defeated officers, Lieutenant Colonel Kaman gave up the idea of ​​immediately retaking the west side of the bridge. At the same time, he asked the troops to be more vigilant to prevent enemy attacks from the east of the bridge. In addition, he also deployed two companies at the bridge and aimed most of his heavy weapons at the west side to prevent the enemy from attacking through the bridge.

Of course, he also sent out the news that the west side of the bridge had been captured as soon as possible.

Then he received a telegram from the 71st Division in Les Carrennes. An infantry regiment had been sent to support, and another infantry regiment was also making preparations for departure.

However, as the part of Buro Pass that was most affected by the capture of the north of the bridge, he received no other news except that he had to hold on until he cooperated with reinforcements to retake the west of the bridge. It seemed strange.

In fact, this is not surprising, because there is really no troops on the Buro Pass. Starting at dawn, the enemy launched a fierce attack on it, trying to capture its last position, the West Peak. Facing the enemy’s fierce attack, the French army at Bro Pass launched a fierce counterattack. Under the suppression of the enemy’s superior aircraft, artillery and other weapons, they repelled the enemy’s attacks time and time again.

For this reason, the defenders put the remaining 22 artillery pieces into the battle. However, these artillery pieces did not allow the French army to breathe for long before they were destroyed by the enemy’s hugely superior artillery counterattack.

At this time, the French army at Bro Pass had no supporting weapons and could only resist the attack of the 11th Army with their flesh and blood. For this reason, the defenders used all the troops they could mobilize just to block the enemy and leave a way for themselves to survive.

Of course, its survival depends on when the 71st Division can recapture the western end of the bridge.

However, as the planner of this operation, how could Lieutenant General Caviglia not know that his commando team would encounter a crazy counterattack by the enemy after its success.

So at this time, in the open space two kilometers west of the bridge, airships were landing one after another. They were replenishing personnel and supplies for the assault battalion that captured the west side of the bridge. In addition to the airship in the sky, there is also a group of flying vehicles hovering vigilantly in the sky. They want to protect the airship from threats in the sky.

This is the second batch of airships, which set off early in the morning. They bypassed the French defense area and took more than three hours to arrive here from Cuneo. The main reason is that the wind direction in the valley is changeable, so the airship can only fly cautiously and slowly. Otherwise, it would take more than half an hour to reach this point on flat ground.

“Quickly, push the cannon out of the pod.”

Just after the airship landed, the officer loudly ordered his soldiers in the cabin to push the artillery out. At this time, those who opened the hatch opened the hatch, and those who pushed the artillery pushed the artillery. Outside the airship, the officers and soldiers who were also waiting outside immediately came in and moved weapons, ammunition and other supplies down with the arriving officers and soldiers.

Because the space is limited and time is tight, no one knows when the enemy will come, so the airship needs to transport the people in the cabin as well as weapons and ammunition as quickly as possible, leaving the space for the next airship. So how fast is the uninstallation speed?

At this time, on one side of the field, several officers were looking at the busy officers and soldiers. As the commander of the assault force, Lieutenant Colonel Arturo, he was holding a pocket watch and watching his soldiers busy transporting the airship.

Behind him, two staff officers were observing the handling scene, trying to optimize it and improve the efficiency of the handling.

Although the airship carried a lot of supplies, it was quickly emptied due to the efforts of the officers and soldiers. After the airship swayed left and right into the air, Lieutenant Colonel Arturo looked at his pocket watch. The minute hand pointed to 46 minutes. It took them 8 minutes from the time the airship landed and unloaded supplies to the time it took off. Just taking off and landing took half the time.

“This damn wind is making the airship land too slow. At this speed, it will have to move to at least noon. We don’t have that long. Lieutenant Colonel, do you want to open a second docking point?”

Major Pittis, the deputy next to Lieutenant Colonel Arturo, said with a worried look. Originally they expected the airship to take off and land in two minutes, but under the influence of Category 5 winds, it was much more difficult to take off and land.

Although the airship is easy to use, it will be difficult to use the airship in strong winds above level 7. For example, in 1911, the giant airship White Swan encountered strong winds of magnitude 11 over the Atlantic Ocean, which blew the White Swan more than 800 kilometers away from its course to the north.

“It’s too late. Other available stops are far away from the bridge, and it’s even more inappropriate at this time.”

When faced with his deputy, Lieutenant Colonel Arturo directly rejected it.

He knew what his deputy was worried about. Time was extremely precious for them at this time. This was the last supply of personnel and materials before they completed the mission. They would definitely take out as much as they could at this time. One stop was not enough now. They I don’t have the energy to open another one now.

For Lieutenant Colonel Arturo, personnel, weapons and ammunition are the priority. If there is not enough time for other supplies, then he can only choose to give up. Of course, he is also looking for ways to increase his own time.

“Let the 2nd Company bring some mines and set up a few positions in the front to harass the enemy troops coming from Lescaren. After one round of fighting, they will withdraw.”

“As you command!”

After watching the messenger leave, Lieutenant Colonel Arturo watched the airship transport for a while, then rushed to the position.

They wanted to build defensive positions on the hills west of the bridge in a short period of time. Although time was tight, trenches were necessary, otherwise how could they defend an enemy division.

With this air supplement, Lieutenant Colonel Arturo’s troops can reach 2,000. Coupled with weapons, ammunition and other supplies, he can barely hold the place for three days. Of course, this is still based on air superiority. Whether the enemy can be completely annihilated and whether they can be saved also depends on how fast the 11th Army attacks.